May 2007
Conservation Connection May 2007
Conservation Connection - October 2006
NOTE: All links have been removed from this archived newsletter. For more information on any topics mentioned, please use our website Search bar above.
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In this issue:
- Auction event
- Columbia Highlands book
- Old growth
- A healthy Washington
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Looking into the Columbia Highlands from the Selkirks
Photo © Charles Gurche
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Share Your Hope for
a Wild Future
Please join Conservation Northwest for the start of summer on Thursday,
June 21st, as we host our 4th annual Hope for a Wild Future
auction at our new location at the Woodland Park Zoo's North Meadow.
Celebrate with us at this fun and educational family-friendly event
as we raise funds to keep the Northwest wild from the Washington Coast
to the BC Rockies.
The evening features an exciting presentation on the Columbia Highlands
Initiative, announcing the winner of the I-90 "Bridging Futures III"
art contest, special children's activities (for ages 5-12), plus an
amazing array of weekend getaways, experiences related to our programs,
Northwest wines, and items for the whole family.
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Park-like ponderosa pine forests typify parts of the
Columbia Highlands.
Photo © James Johnston
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A Journey through the Columbia Highlands
East of the craggy Cascades, you'll find the Kettle River Range and
Selkirk Mountains–a beautiful but largely undiscovered corner
of the American West still home to grizzly bears, wolves, moose, lynx,
and bighorn sheep. In Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington's
Last Frontier, Conservation Northwest joins with author Craig Romano,
photographer James Johnston, and The Mountaineers Books to document
through story and image this beautiful corner of Washington State, along
the way highlighting one of the most successful community collaborations
today in the West.
"I've been in ponderosa groves, laying on my back on the beargrass, looking up through the swaying trees.
The sunlight and wind and blue sky–just perfectly brilliant–and these big enormous pillars like they
were supporting the sky. I don't know of any place around here that protects them, and they should be." –Chris
Jorgenson, rural resident, quoted in Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington's Last Frontier
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Pacific giant salamanders prefer fast-moving, clear streams in mature and old-growth conifer forests.
Photo: Gary Brasch
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Support for Old Growth and Wildlife
Attempts by the Bush Administration to eliminate protections for wildlife
are failing thanks to recent court rulings safeguarding wildlife habitat.
This spring, federal judges ruled in favor of maintaining wildlife protections,
upholding key protections in the National Forest Management Act and
the Northwest Forest Plan's Aquatic Conservation Strategy.
Federal managers will once more be required to "maintain viable populations" of wild animals in
national forests, to follow environmental and public review of forest management plans, and to
"maintain and restore" aquatic habitat for salmon and other aquatic life in westside older forests.
These regulations are at the heart of protecting the Pacific Northwest's old-growth forests, clean water, and wildlife.
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Antoine Peak, protected by Wildlife and Recreation Program
funding, overlooks the Spokane Valley and is an important wildlife corridor
and habitat area.
Photo: WA Wildlife and Recreation Coalition
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Healthy Wildlife, Healthy Washington
Conservation Northwest was one of many conservation groups working
to pass legislation in Olympia this year, and thanks to the support
of all our members, we've much to celebrate today. All four "Priorities
for a Healthy Washington," presented by the conservation community,
passed: Clean Air/Clean Fuels, Save our Sound, Eliminating Toxic Flame
Retardants, and $100 Million for Wildlife and Recreation Program.
Other conservation measures passed this session include funding for
a collaborative plan for Blanchard
Mountain, protecting forests from sprawl in northwest Washington;
passage of a transfer of development rights program to help protect
family forest lands most at risk of conversion (a new tool that will
be helpful in keeping the Cascades connected to the Rockies); and funding
for Phase 1 of the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project, which includes
building wildlife bridges across I-90 and restoring waterways home to
bull trout at Gold Creek.
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